"This--what shall I call it?--this Dream of Women, grew up in my mind as
I grew up--as something independent of and much more important than the
reality of Women. It came only very slowly into relation with that. That
girl on the Dymchurch beach was one of the first links, but she ceased
very speedily to be real--she joined the women of dreamland at last
altogether. She became a sort of legendary incarnation. I thought of
these dream women not only as something beautiful but as something
exceedingly kind and helpful. The girls and women I met belonged to a
different creation...."
Sir Richmond stopped abruptly and rowed a few long strokes.
Dr. Martineau sought information.
"I suppose," he said, "there was a sensuous element in these dreamings?"
"Certainly. A very strong one. It didn't dominate but it was a very
powerful undertow."
"Was there any tendency in all this imaginative stuff to concentrate?
To group itself about a single figure, the sort of thing that Victorians
would have called an ideal?"
"Not a bit of it," said Sir Richmond with conviction. "There was always
a tremendous lot of variety in my mind. In fact the thing I liked least
in the real world was the way it was obsessed by the idea of pairing off
with one particular set and final person.
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